Page 95 - Çevre Şehir ve İklim Dergisi İngilizce - Özel Sayı

Mustafa Sert - Abdullah Emin Akay
Ayhan Ateşoğlu

1. Introduction

The factors such as rapidly-developing industry, improper land use,
disproportionate urban growth, and climate change, which is one of the most
important problems of our world, lead to rapid depletion of natural resources
and many environmental issues. The most significant of these issues include
desertification caused by the loss of land cover, and erosion caused by the
transport of vulnerable soil from one place to another. As a result of land
cover and soil losses, the ecosystem is heavily damaged, large areas are
abandoned, ecological migrations occur, biodiversity losses occur, and food
security is directly and indirectly affected. It is essential to identify the source
of the problem in order to develop projects, take necessary measures and
adopt policies to solve these problems.
20 million hectares of fertile soil are degraded and 24 billion tonnes of soil
are eroded across the world every year. 70% of drylands are also at risk of
desertification (AbdelRahman, 2023; GSP, 2017). According to the Global Soil
Partnership reports led by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 75
billion tonnes of soil are subject to erosion worldwide every year (GSP, 2017).
While 642 million tons of soil are transported every year as a result of water
erosion in Türkiye, 22.5% of the area is at high risk of desertification (ÇEM,
2017; Erpul et al., 2020).
Remote sensing and satellite technologies enable easy monitoring of the
earth and natural resources, analysing changes in natural resources, identifying
risk zones and making effective planning. Ground-based measurement
methods, i.e. collection of data in the field and transfer of these data to the
computer environment are extremely costly and require qualified labour
force. This technology makes it possible to collect geographical data easily,
saving both time and labour force. This article aims to review and synthesize
the studies on the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote
Sensing (RS) technologies in combating desertification and erosion.

2. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and
Remote Sensing (RS) Technologies

GIS is the systematic presentation of a large number of different statistical
and spatial data that can be used in environmental inventory, observation of
changes and influencing factors, and forecasts based on current practices and
plans. Geographical information systems consist of some main constituents
and data (satellite images, maps, global positioning system) form the basis of
these constituents. Software and hardware are other important constituents.

82 Journal of Environment, Urban and Climate